26 February, 2017

Scotland ‘seriously considering’ 2nd #indyref in 2018

The Scottish
government is seriously thinking about staging a second independence
referendum next year, triggering a mixed reaction within the EU.

Charles
Grant, an adviser to the Scottish government’s Standing Council on
Europe, told Reuters: “The Scottish government is thinking very,
very seriously about going for an independence referendum next year.”

Grant said
that Brexit is the main reason behind Edinburgh’s renewed attempts
to make Scotland an independent country.

“They
feel they have enough emotion and momentum to overcome the economic
downsides... the harder the Brexit, the more likely they are to break
away,” Grant said.

Scots voted
55 percent to 45 percent in favor of remaining in the UK in a tightly
contested September 2014 referendum, but largely opposed the UK’s
decision to leave the European Union. In fact, 62 percent of the
Scottish population voted for Britain to remain in the EU.

As the
British government is increasingly leaning toward “hard Brexit,”
which entails the total withdrawal from the European single market
and customs union, the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) has
intensified its calls for a second independence vote.

Last
October, the Scottish government published a draft bill for the
second referendum.